Martha Fretton had her sentencing adjourned from March until today so she could be assessed for a home detention sentence. Photo / Mike Scott
A woman at the centre of a migrant worker rort in the North Island was simply blinded by the “dollar signs” in front of her instead of the rights of the Papua New Guinea residents involved.
Martha Fretton, of Auckland, was sentenced today for her part in the 2016 offending which saw a group of 16 workers brought to New Zealand by Christina Kewa-Swarbrick and her husband, Antony Swarbrick.
Instead of filling out work visas, the orchestrator, Kewa-Swarbrick, got the workers to unwittingly complete visitor visas after failing in her bid to get them into the country under the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
Between 2013 and 2016, the couple arranged for groups of seasonal workers from Papua New Guinea to work illegally at a Hawke’s Bay vineyard and in Cambridge for low wages.
Fretton’s offending related to 12 of those workers.
Kewa-Swarbrick and her husband were sentenced by Judge Robert Spear in March, but Fretton’s sentencing was adjourned as she hadn’t consented to probation carrying out an assessment at her home for an electronically monitored sentence, and risked going to jail.
That had since happened, and at the sentencing, prosecutor Paige Noorland noted Fretton’s apparent victim-blaming attitude.
Submissions made by her defence lawyer, Gavin Boot, stated his client said the workers chose to deliberately work in breach of their visitor visa conditions.
“I take issue with that ... particularly given the position and vulnerability they were placed in in New Zealand; their understanding that they were going to be able to make significantly larger sums of money in appropriate ways,” Noorland said.
Boot responded by saying he didn’t intend to blame the victims with his submissions but their position was similar to his clients.
“The people from Papua New Guinea were clearly on a permit that didn’t allow them to work ... and they chose to work thinking that was fine, that’s what they wanted to do.
“Essentially, Ms Fretton almost did the same thing. She didn’t turn her mind to the fact that it was criminal, what she was doing, she knew it was wrong and she needed to check the permits and visas.
“She could have said ‘no’, but so could have these 12 workers.”
He said she was simply helping the Swarbricks after being approached by a church leader when the couple got themselves “into a tight spot”.
Kerr-Swarbrick was the one with the “grand idea, the grand plan ... Ms Fretton wasn’t a party to any of that background knowledge”, Boot said.
His client did plead guilty, albeit partway through the trial, and had since lost her business, would struggle to get a job in the future and was now a full-time carer for her children and grandchildren.
In earlier proceedings, the Employment Court had also ruled she pay each of the 12 workers $2500, which she was currently paying off.
She was also highly regarded in the Samoan community in Manurewa, having recently been given the title of ‘Matai’, or leader, and remained active in her church.
Judge Spear said Fretton’s role began after the workers landed in New Zealand.
Fretton’s business at that time was offering contract labour work to certain vineyards.
There was a “sponsorship arrangement” drawn up where six workers would go to Hawke’s Bay, be provided with some on-the-job training and work in the vineyard.
Fretton would then pay a “sponsorship sum” to another company, Key Harvest, operating in Cambridge.
They worked six days a week, eight hours a day.
“It was, of course, a nonsense,” Judge Spear said.
“At no stage did you ask whether they had work permits.
“At no stage does it appear that you had a belief that they were entitled to work.”
The judge said her situation was more than just helping the Swarbricks out of a difficult situation - rather “an excellent way to generate quite a healthy profit for yourself”.
Fretton charged the workers out at commercial rates and received around $21,000, paying only about $9000 or $10,000 of that to the workers themselves and keeping the rest.
“It was a clear case of exploitation.
“You were in the business. You knew that people from overseas needed a work permit.
“The fact that you entered into this sponsorship showed that you couldn’t care about their rights and simply saw dollar signs in front of your eyes.
“I do not believe you were helping Ms Kewa-Swarbrick, you were looking to help yourself, and that amounts to exploitation of these vulnerable workers from overseas.”
He said they were looked after relatively well while in Hawke’s Bay, but “they just weren’t paid”.
“Those 12 people from Papua New Guinea struggled to understand what their rights might be as a worker in this country.”
Fretton was sentenced to nine months of home detention on one representative charge of aiding the workers to breach a condition of their visitor visa to undertake work in New Zealand.
Kewa-Swarbrick is currently serving a sentence of 10 months of home detention, while her husband is serving an eight-month sentence.
Belinda Feek has been a reporter for 19 years, and at the Herald for eight years before joining the Open Justice team in 2022.